just picked up some new Oscellated skinks today. just babies. just a quick feeding question. i can't seem to get crickets small enough for these little ones. even the smallest i can get from the pet store are way too big. and all i have are mealies and wax worms for my leo. aside from greens and fruits, any suggestions till they get a little bigger to attack the small crix? here's a few pics of the little ones.
Oh my goodness, so teeny tiny! I would look into ordering some pinhead crickets online. The only other commonly available small feeder would be fruit flies, and unless the pictures are misleading, those are going to be too small. They definitely need their protein as they are little growing babies, so try to get those pinheads as soon as you can. If you can find a store selling soldier fly larvae (also called calci worms, repti worms, or phoenix worms), those might be small enough and are a pretty good staple worm. I know you've heard this before and you'll probably hear it again, but please avoid sand with young and tiny herps (as well as certain species that are prone to ingesting it). I know skinks are big on digging, but babies are prone to impaction, especially at such a tiny size as yours are at. Stick with tile, reptile carpet, paper towels, newspaper, or smoothe non-adhesive rubber shelf liner until they are fully grown. You can give them some old t-shirts to dig in if you want to allow them that liberty. Also, it looks like you are using some kind of calcium or vitamin sand--these are particularly dangerous, even for adults. If you do eventually make the switch over to a particulate substrate, make sure you stick with regular, untreated playsand that has been sifted through a screen a few times. It's also highly advisable that you feed outside of the enclosure to prevent actual ingestion of the playsand when hunting or eating salad. Sorry for the lecturing, but I know we all have our animals' best interests at heart here, so I thought you would want to know there are much safer alternatives for your little ones.
ok. i've switched over to carpet for now. the twins seem to be doing good. tho one seems to have it's tail kind of bent in a few places. they are enjoying they're tank at the moment.
Hm... I know that in leos and cresteds and the link kinks in their tail usually means a lack of calcium in their diet and one of the first signs of MBD. I would up his calcium for a couple weeks and see if it works itself out...
Glad to see you made the switch to carpet and that they are doing well. In addition to what Stiky said about extra calcium supplementation, make sure they are getting the correct UVB lighting. I know you are a gecko veteran, but I wasn't sure if you've had diurnal lizards before. Some things to keep in mind are: Make sure the bulb specifies that it produces UVB (not just "full spectrum" or "day light"). Make sure the bulb is the correct distance away (within 6-10" for tube fluorescents; at least 12" away for MVBs). Finally, make sure there is no glass, plastic, or extremely fine wire screening between the bulb and the basking spot. (These filter out UVB.)
Fantastic looking. They will take mealworms till you go with crickets but skinks will attack and eat good size insects.
I know they love to dig, wouldn't aspen serve better? I read sand fish skink actually die if they can not bury and granted Ocellated not same thing but imagined similiar?
Aspen still poses an impaction hazard to tiny hatchlings like the ones you see here. Like I said, you can always provide a hide with an old t-shirt for them to dig and nestle down in, and can switch to a safely screened playsand when they are larger, although vitasand and calcium sands still need to be avoided. I can't find any evidence about sandfish skinks dying if they can't dig...
Congrads on your new baby!! I have a bluetongue skink. I don't know all that much about ocellateds. And I'm a first-time reptile owner myself. Hope this helps. http://www.repticzone.com/caresheets/1151.html
Congrats they look really cute I love Skinks they are so fascinating to watch I just got my Oscellated Skink's today and one of their tails has really dry bits on it and i can't find anything about it on the internet at all. Does anyone have any suggestions. Also i have a uv bulb and basking bulb. Does the basking bulb need to be on all night? I've posted a post myself but no-one is responding
Is the basking bulb white, red, or blue light? If it's red or blue and it's your main source of heat I would keep it on, but if it's white light make sure you have it on a timer that keeps a good "day light" schedule for your little guys
